Saturday, October 29, 2016

Making your own “fancy” crackers at home is a fairly basic
operation, and not only will they be less expensive, but you can customize them
anyway you want. Whether those reasons are good enough is for you to decide,
but if they are, your efforts will be rewarded… with crackers just as good as
the ones from the store.

As I mentioned in the video, there are two types of
“crackers;” the crispy, delicate, flaky, biscuit-style; and the flatbread-style
we’re making here. These are much more like a fried pita chip, than a saltine,
which is perfect for pairing with cheese. There’s nothing worse than trying to
cheese a too-brittle cracker, three drinks in, and having it explode in your hand.

The recipe and technique are very simple, but please pay
attention to your baking time. My “12-15 minutes,” is just a rough guess, and
it will depend on the thickness of your dough. I would start checking at 10
minutes, and go from there. Other than that, not much can go wrong. With prime
cheese and cracker season upon us, I really hope you give these a try soon.
Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Gnocchi alla Romana are as delicious, as they are virtually
unknown. I feel like I’ve eaten a fair amount of Italian food, and I’ve been to
Rome, but it wasn’t until late in life that I discovered these wonderful, baked
semolina dumplings.

Above and beyond their exquisite texture, and great taste, I
love their versatility. They’re a world-class side dish as is, but can be
paired with your favorite pasta sauce, and served as an appetizer, or entrée.
Rave reviews should come your way; along with lots of “But, why are these
called gnocchi, again?”

For a great winter twist, you can place some sage leaves in between
the gnocchi before baking them, and they’d be perfect at any holiday feast. In
fact, now I’m upset I didn’t do that this time. I’m going to have to make
another batch. Anyway, I really do hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 16 Roman-Style Gnocchi:

Note: I used a 2.75-inch cutter

3 cups milk

1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

1 1/4 cup semolina

1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (only about
1.25 ounces by weight, but if you grate it on a microplane, it will easily fill
a cup)

Friday, October 21, 2016

It’s kind of nice when the name of a recipe is simply what’s
in it, as is the case with this pan of roasted chicken, sausage, peppers, and
potatoes. As soon as you see the words, you know exactly what you’re getting
into.

The only problem is, “chicken, sausage, peppers, and potatoes,” uses up a lot of
characters on Twitter, so if you did have an idea for a shorter and/or catchier name, I’m
all ears.

By the way, the two most important things here are not on
the ingredient list. That would include a large, heavy-duty roasting pan, as
well as a very hot oven. Hopefully, you have something similar to what I used,
but if not, you can divide everything up between several smaller casserole dishes; or even
use those large, disposable aluminum pans.

I went with hot Italian sausage here, since it so
highly-seasoned, but you can really tailor a dish like this to your personal
tastes, by switching up what you use, as well as the herbs, and seasonings. No matter what you include, just be sure to season generously, and leave it in the
oven long enough. We want everything beautifully caramelized, and our
chicken fork tender. I really hope
you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

This is a very unlikely post, considering the fact I’m not a
big fan of snickerdoodles, and generally loathe adding pumpkin spice to non-pie
things, such as coffee and beer. Despite that, I had a feeling the pumpkin
spice would work perfectly with the buttery, cinnamon sugar cookie, and it did.

Unfortunately, a quick Google search showed I hadn’t
invented it, and there were thousands of variations; from thin and chewy,
featuring crisp edges, to much taller, pillowy versions. I decided to go thin,
and adapted this snicker doodle recipe, from Averie Cooks.

One common denominator was the use of baking soda, plus
cream of tartar, instead of baking powder. Since that’s pretty much what baking
powder is, I don’t see what the big difference would be either way, but I
thought I would mention in case you refuse to go out and buy cream of tartar.
Either way, I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Friday, October 14, 2016

I love berbere spice, but it never occurred to me to make my
own. I usually get it pre-mixed from the fancy grocery store, and it’s never
disappointed, but I’ve wanted to feature it in a recipe, so I figured I’d also
show how to make a batch from scratch.

Well, sort of from scratch. To make this “for real,” you
need to buy the whole spice seeds/pods, toast them, and grind it yourself. It
does make a difference, but I rationalize not doing all that extra work because
I usually toast the spices during the cooking process anyway.

I’m not exactly sure what dried chili pepper(s) would be
most authentic, but many people are saying that the New Mexico chili I used
does a nice job. They have a nice, sweet, earthy flavor, and
are sort of medium spicy. If you can’t find it, they say California or ancho
chilies can work.

Like I said in the video, please use
the ingredients and amounts below as an outline, and adjust this to your
tastes. Once you’ve perfected your formula, you’ll be the proud owner of one of
the most delicious, and versitle spice mixes ever. I hope you give this a try
soon. Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

It’s not completely accurate to say this is my recipe for
sausage pasta fazool, since I’ve probably never made this the same way twice,
but that’s just the kind of dish it is. In fact, I rarely even make it on purpose,
but rather as a way to use up leftover meat. Regardless of what you use, this
is classic Italian-American comfort food at its finest.

Having said that, if you were going to make this
intentionally, this particular array of ingredients does work quite well. Sausage
is always a great choice for a sauce, since not only do we get our meat, we
also get all the associated garlic, herbs, and spices for free.

Speaking of the herbs and spices, I went with “sweet”
Italian, because I really like how the anise and fennel seeds work with the
beans, but any variety of fresh or dried sausage can be used. So, don’t feel
like you have to wait for “one of those days” before giving this a try. Enjoy!

Friday, October 7, 2016

One of the many advantages of living in San Francisco is my
proximity to some pretty amazing Mexican food. That used to be a much bigger
deal, but happily, you can now get tacos and burritos in just about every
corner of the country these days.

However, one item that hasn’t swept the nation like the
others, is the Mexican-style shrimp cocktail. Which is a shame, since it’s
every bit as good, if not better, than the more common version. Who knows?
Maybe if this video goes viral, one day “Taco Tuesday,” will be joined by
“Mexican Shrimp Cocktail Monday.”

Please just use the ingredients and amounts below as a rough
guide, and adapt as you see fit. The spiciness, tanginess, and salt level are
all very subjective things, and you’ll almost certainly need to adjust. I
really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

I don’t usually like to put words like “real” or “classic”
in front of recipe names, since who the hell really knows, but in the case this
aioli, I’m feeling pretty confident. In its purest form, this amazing sauce is
nothing more than olive oil emulsified into freshly crushed garlic, seasoned
simply with salt and lemon.

It arguably the greatest cold sauce of all time. Speaking of
cold, the health benefits of regular aioli consumption are legendary. There’s
not much not to like here, unless you don’t like garlic, then there’s plenty.
This is pure, fiery, intense garlic flavor like you may have never tasted. It’s
also a clever trick to get you to buy a wooden, or marble mortar and pestle.

Sure, if you don’t have one you can smash the garlic against
the cutting board, with the flat of a large knife, and sort of do the same
thing, but you don’t get the extra pulverization when emulsifying the oil.And it’s all about the pulverization.That’s what releases all those volatile
compounds in the garlic, producing aioli’s signature flavor. I really hope you
give this a try soon.Enjoy!

- Note: This is best eaten fresh, but should be okay for about24 hours.

* Since this sauce has such a sharp, hot flavor from the
garlic, you don’t want to use a really strongly flavored olive oil. We don’t
want anything too peppery and bitter, which will clash with the garlic. Use
something on the mild side, or cut with a neutral vegetable oil.